About 500 soldiers from the People's Liberation Army left Zongyang county of East China's Anhui province on Monday morning.

The county along the Yangtze River has been suffering from severe floods since the beginning of July. With more than half a month of hard work by the soldiers on the frontline, the flooding situation has been brought under control.

On hearing the soldiers were leaving, many local residents rushed to the troops' temporary base at a school, carrying agricultural products of their own, including lotus seeds, grapes and boiled eggs.

A China Daily reporter had observed the soldiers for days, finding that they often didn't have time for a meal or sleep as the flood relief work has been a race against time.

As the soldiers left Zongyang, they were rushing northwards to Lujiang county, which lies beside Chaohu Lake, the country's fifth-largest freshwater lake, to continue their flood relief work.

The troops had arrived at Lujiang and had been assigned new tasks by Monday afternoon.